From the Hip #6 - "...like it's your job."

Have you ever stopped to consider the phrase "like it's your/my job" and what it says about our culture? 

"Holy crap, I'm out of shape... I'm going to start running every morning like it's my job." 
"This new book is so good I'm gonna spend the next week reading it like it's my job." 
"If you really want to lose weight, start following a balanced diet like it's your job." 
"I feel like I haven't spent any time with my wife in weeks... I'm going to spend start spending time with her like it's my job." 
"Man, he's chowing down on that burrito like it's his job!"

What's the message here? That "your job" is the most significant thing in your life, apparently. Any time I've heard this phrase used, it's applied to something personal: a personal fitness goal, personal health, a passion project, an enjoyable hobby, a personal venture started long ago. Lurking behind this phrase is this idea that personal endeavors should be secondary to our "job"—that whatever it is, it's not that important unless it's making us money, or unless someone with a bigger salary and fancier title than us is telling us to do it. Is that how we want to live? Is that the metric by which we wish to define importance? I, for one, believe that we ought to be prioritizing ourselves, our health, our passions, what we care about, what we believe in, what satisfies us and enriches our lives to the greatest degree. You should be doing what you do because you want to. Turn the tables on how you perceive what's important. If you really want to commit your efforts to something, tell yourself and your friends that you're going to "start running every morning like it's my passion," not "...like it's my job."

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Strong of heart, strong of mind, strong of swole.

From the Hip #4 - Time is Made, Not Had

One of the most common excuses I hear for not exercising, not being fit, not meeting health goals, not following through with a plan, etc., is the classic "I just don't have enough time."

But how much time you have doesn’t matter one bit. Everyone has the same amount of time in their day. The world-class Olympic athlete who trains for 7-hours per day, runs a charity organization for inner city youth, and cares for her family has the same amount of time in her day as the obese layabout living in his parent's basement who single-handedly keeps crappy daytime television programs and the local supplier of Doritos afloat. Having time is not what matters; what matters is how much time you make. 
I believe we should all ban “I don’t have enough time” from our vocabulary. That simple phrase turns the onus away from us and puts it on someone/something else. When I say “I don’t have enough time,” I make myself the unfortunate victim of the cruel constraints put on me by the all-powerful time gods. My fate is not my own, but that of whoever took all of my time away and gave it out to everyone else who magically seems to “have” more time. We ought to replace the phrase “I don’t have enough time” with “I don’t make enough time.” Our time, or at least what we do with it, is made, not had. It is a matter of prioritization and management, not accident and fortune. And when we tell others and ourselves that we “don’t make enough time,” we must face the reality that the distribution of our time is a choice. Didn’t get to the gym yesterday even though you told yourself you would? That’s because you didn’t make the time to do it. Didn’t spend the time to do meal prep for the week, and now you’re eating freezer meals and fast food? That’s because you prioritized something else. Didn’t get enough sleep all last week? That’s because you let something else take precedence over sleep. And sometimes this is okay! Sometimes you should prioritize something else over working out or cooking your own food or getting 8 hours of sleep every night. Sometimes family takes priority, sometimes an important and time-sensitive opportunity comes up, sometimes it’s okay to make the choice to skip your workout. The key is that it is a choice, and it is a choice that you made consciously and that you believe was the right choice. However, when you have to tell yourself or your coach or your partner that “I didn’t make enough time to come to the gym,” knowing that your time that should have been spent working out was actually spent browsing Facebook posts and watching bad reality TV, that should be a gut check for you. That should make you reconsider your priorities. Is mindlessly scrolling through social media and watching Snookie go snookie-ing about more important than your health and your goals? 

Our time is a choice, not an accident. Treat it that way.

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Strong of heart, strong of mind, strong of swole.